Thanks to law enforcement, too

EDITOR,
Steve Bailey’s Aug. 21 column praising firefighters (“Thanks to the firefighters,” Page 15) was 90 percent commendable, right up to his sentence that starts: “Their code seems dramatically more honorable than that of the other public agency often linked with firefighters — the police.”
Say what? He continues inserting his boot into his mouth: “the internal fraternity (of police officers) seems all about covering one another for lies and misdeeds, conspiring against the public, which is viewed as the enemy.”
What is he basing this libel upon? He suggests that a fraternity representing up to one million law enforcement officers has no respectable “code.”
As a reader, all I can surmise is that either Mr. Bailey has had some unbelievably bad run-ins with the cops who were protected by their evil union, reads too many bad-cop novellas, or picks the most unflattering media coverage of the men and women in blue upon which to base this knuckleheaded statement of unsubstantiated opinion.
My question is, why taint a generally positive column praising the great work of our firefighters at the expense of the police? Besides, it seems a bit like comparing apples and oranges, anyway.
Fires are not sentient beings out to intentionally commit criminal acts, with the ripple effect that initiates. Sure, there are bad apples who succumb to corruption and the lure of easy money. But Bailey needs to do a little more work if he’s going to libel the entire lot.
The police fraternity has good reason to look out for its own and view some of the public with cynicism — gangs, drug dealers and repeat child abusers, for example.
The Ben Lomond Fire Department saved my home when my wife was nine months pregnant with my first son. I’m eternally grateful for their speed and professionalism, just as the “Dooners” are, and many others.
But Bailey should apologize to the men and women who do their best every day to protect all of us, the law enforcement officers who have buried many of their own who have died in the line of duty.
Greg Cornelison, Ben Lomond